square abaci. There are also semi-detached shafts, of similar character, connected with the main piers on either side. In the aisles of the crypt the vaulting springs from semi-detached shafts on either side, and rests on a single row of columns in the centre. The east end of the central division (which remains entire) is apsidal; and the curious and intricate arrangement of the vaulting at this point (arising “from the complicated slopes which had to be adjusted there”) should be especially noticed. The aisles of the crypt terminate at present nearly at the bend of the apse, but they were originally carried quite round it, so as to form a circular procession-path. “There are but four apsidal crypts in England, which in chronological order are,--Winchester (1079), Worcester (1084), Gloucester (1089), and Canterbury (1096). In all these the side aisles run completely round the apse. Amongst them, Worcester is remarkable for the multiplicity of small pillars employed to sustain the vaults. The side aisle has a row of small pillars running along the centre, which are not employed in the other examples. The central portion has three rows of intermediate pillars, whereas Gloucester and Canterbury have but two rows, and Winchester but one. Yet the width of the central crypt of Worcester is less than the others. The increased number of pillars, by diminishing the span of the arches, and dividing the weight of the vault upon so many supports, enables the diameters of the pillars to be reduced, and gives greater lightness to the architecture. For the height of all these crypts is nearly the same; so that at Winchester and Gloucester the arches are flattened into ellipses, the pillars are low and squat, and the crypts appear as sepulchral vaults; while at Worcester, where the arches are semicircular and the pillars more slender, the crypt is a complex and beautiful temple[91].” It has been compared to the mosque (now the cathedral) of Cordova. We may re-people this crypt in imagination with the venerable abbots and priests of the synod convened by Wulfstan[92]. It is probable that small apsidal chapels flanked the crypt at its western termination, on both sides. On the south side such a chapel still exists, immediately under that which opens from the south aisle of the choir. The western, and part of the southern, wall of this chapel is Norman, as are the central pillars. The square eastern end, however, is Early English, of the same date as the chapel above it.